Love when you show the timeline and cut locations in the examples, that's actually really helpful to me in terms of thinking about how to edit dialogue in particular.
Fun fact about that Lost World cut, because I've been a huge Jurassic Park nerd since childhood and The Lost World is basically my Jupiter Ascending: Originally the shot of the mother screaming was supposed to cut to a shot of an InGen board member yawning, in a scene where Ludlow and the board are discussing the girl's injury and how it's affecting their finances. Which I guess is a little more cohesive, since it contrasts the mother's horror with InGen's indifference at the people they hurt? But at some point they decided to cut the scene, so I assume they went back and filmed the shot of Ian yawning so they could keep the edit. Also, I seriously doubt it was intentional, but I do kinda like Mikey Neumann's interpretation that Ian's yawn represents the audience's boredom at seeing dinosaurs this time around.
I'm an idiot and also don't follow movies in general that much, what was "my Jupiter Ascending" supposed to mean? (Yes I know this comment is five years old but I'm curious NOW. )
@@ValkyrieTiara Jupiter Ascending is generally seen as not that great of a film, but a lot of people have very positive feelings for it, and so I'd assume that's what OP is referring to, since The Lost World is generally seen as not as good as the first, but I imagine a lot of people still like it
6:23 I was literally actively in increasing pressuring discomfort thinking: "B... But the 2001... Obviously he's going to have to show the 2001 one, right? Is he really not going to mention the 2001 cut?" Soon after, obviously, i got served... Well played.
This was so extremely fun, and the hijinks were wonderful since they don't lengthen the time required to make a point, but instead exemplify the point. This is probably the best video about cuts out there!
The transition sequence section is awesome. I know how time consuming it can be to time out the rapid audio and make all those transitions happen. Kudos for going the extra mile to bring out some humor and using clever editing to illustrate your points about editing.
That list of transition types was beautiful, your tone was spot on, actually made me laugh. Good job (also, the rest of the video was informative and interesting, thanks)
It's official, this is my favorite page on RU-vid. As a big cinephile looking to expand my knowledge and appreciation of the craft of film, your videos and knowledge and means of delivering it all has been invaluable to me
+hicham mensour If you're like me and binge watch these types of videos, you'd know that basically every single essay about editing mentions that specific transition in 2001 A Space Odyssey. I'm assuming he's poking fun at the fact that literally everyone uses that movie as an example.
I think Spielberg sometimes sneaks in personal jokes with some of his cuts. The cut cited in "The Lost World" seems like Spielberg pointing up how this film will be by-the-numbers (Malcolm yawning in response to a suspense set-piece). Similarly, "Crystal Skull" opens with a cross-fade from a mountain to a molehill, seemingly meant to remind us of the phrase "don't make mountains out of molehills," aka "this is a B-movie confection you should not be taking seriously." [Not to defend the movie, just think that's what he was after.]
I don't know anything about editing, but the section about match cuts reminded me a lot of one of my favorite movies in the history of the world, Mulholland Drive. In the second part of the film (once outside the dream, after the characters have switched), there are an awful lot of these match cuts, and the idea is clearly to present different scenes from different moments in time as if they formed part of a single timeline, in order to increase the jarring effect of that part of the film. I remember many specific examples, like two sequences being tied together via a phone ringing, via a plate falling on the floor and breaking, etc. It took me four viewings of the film to actually (and spontaneously) realize where and how each scene fits into the movie, and how all those match cuts are completely intentional and confuse the audience into not really understanding what they're seeing.
In that Lost World clip I also like that the match cut is amusingly foreshadowing the shift in focus from dinosaurs on an island to rampaging through the city by the end.
I like the Devil Puppet. Also, if you watch during the part where he's describing Jump Cuts, he's actually using those exact badly done jump cuts he's talking about, while he's talking about it, as an example. It's rather clever.
Dan, could you do a short comparative video on how various cultures make basic narrative decisions differently from one another? Even casual viewers of, say, Bollywood or Japanese media notice there's something fundamentally different about shot choices, etc., but as I'm only moderately literate in the Hollywood style of film making, I'm curious for a more articulate answer on what some of these decisions are. Great content as always. Watching this particular video again for maybe the third time now - even though I know this material, I don't edit video much so I have to revisit it time to time to remind me of the basic terminology I too easily forget. And I'd rather listen to you than just read a list ; ) Happy holidays!
While set/costume filled videos have made it obvious the kind of work that can go into RU-vid content creation, I found this really helpful for appreciating the thought and labour that hides in plain sight in more understated productions. Thanks!
Noel Burch also describes what might be translated as "delayed apprehension cut": two cuts appear to be in continuity, but they are not related by the same space-time or perspective, so the viewer takes time to understand them.
The term "Raccord de aprehensión retardada" is from a spanish book ("Praxis del cine" by Noel Burch) Raccord is a french word, can be understood like any element of continuity between two or more takes, is the sensation that the montage of the movie flows for the viewer. Unlike the word "cut" describes a conection not a separation. I think in USA the word "cut" is refered to the mechanichal action of jumping between takes, but the word "raccord" is more related to the ilusion of continuity that produce this assembly of pieces. "Aprehensión retardada" is in spanish an can be translated as: delayed apprehension. So when you edit an scene like the one of "Silence of the lambs" the idea is to mislead the viewer (just like Buffalo Bill mislead the police) creating the illusion that the takes are in continuity, but it takes time to understand how this elements in the scene are related, If they are in the same time/location or if they belong to another. You don´t know that is a parallel montage until the end of the scene, technically it is, but narrative is different.
The best example ever is that part in Me, Myself & Irene where the guy is gonna poop on a neighbor's lawn and the movie cuts to a stream of chocolate ice cream being poured into a cone. Complete with matching sounds :)
I realize that the chance of you seeing this is basically zero, but I want to pop in and thank you for putting out this series. Years after randomly watching these videos, I moved from pure audio editing for podcasts to basic video editing, and having this vocabulary available to me made it much easier to conceptualize what kinds of choices I can make when editing video. However small my channel may be, your lessons have made it better than it otherwise would have been.
Dude. Super insightful. Would love it if you could also start having a summary at the end. All the types of cuts out into a single frame that we can pause and note. Yes, this is me hoping to get free film classes from you.
I really love your technical editing and narrative discourse vids, I learned so much! Also, I was tickled by the fact that you continually used the cuts your were talking about in your vid without explaining that that's what you were doing (with the exception of the hilariously sarcastic bit on wipe transitions - I also love that you put humour in something educational, it's how we learn best!)
Some of the edits I'd like to learn more about, both mechanically and narratively, are the fades; fade to black/white, or cross-fades (though I don't see cross-fades outside of drugged POV shots like, ever that I can think of!). I think that's probably a topic itself, quite complex; I know I've seen very fast (& subtle) and very slow fade-to-black shots used in interesting ways, so we're not talking about a single thing here. But I'm very intrigued about these, and think you could do an interesting episode on them.
Oh, yeah, that'd be a simple one. A quick crossfade smooths a change of location. A slow crossfade merges the attributes of the A and B shots, what's called the Giving Frame and the Receiving Frame, with the B shot being the recipient of the A shot's meaning. The slower the crossfade the more intense the connection, the more of A that is imposed on B. If a crossfade lasts sufficiently long, such that it becomes a shot of its own, then the meaning begins to flow backwards and B, having been digested and interpreted in its hybrid form, begins to impose its meaning onto A. Fade to black implies a void or cessation, while a fade to white implies a fullness or continuation. Depending on the emotional tenor of the piece and its philosophical stance towards life, either may represent death. A dip to white, thus, implies a removal of time wherein there was a continuation, i.e. "more of this" (this is what makes dip-to-white the preferred solution to what would otherwise be a non-stylistic jump cut in documentary interview footage). A dip to black is the inverse, that there is an unknown or a break between A and B.
By the way, thanks! I didn't respond when you made this, life was chaos, but that is a really clear explanation, and really clicks with how these affect me as a viewer. I've been enjoying watching more for these effects (when I've had time to watch things at all 0_o). Thanks so much!
Seeing puppets in a folding ideas video makes me so happy. I know you've moved on to doing more serious educational stuff, but I always loved them in the old days.
i dont think i have ever seen... well at least noticed a wipe transition in an actual film, that wasnt done sarcastically. other than star wars... jeeze so many wipes.
I mean, that's the thing: when it's used well you don't *feel* it, even if it's there. They're used quite often as part of hidden transitions, when something like a pillar or a wall blocks the camera, and the frame wipes to a new scene. The wipe is there, but it's merged with a diegetic, obstructing element, so its transition feels appropriate, like looking around a corner.
I still sometimes just randomly remember the wipe in... i think a New Hope, where they lift up the droids and literally carry the wipe up the screen haha.
Sincere clap to both of you for taking what I said literally. I find them funny. Not sarcastic. What I meant was... *spoilers if you haven't seen the movie* It would've been better that it isn't part of Cloverfield universe. The ending was kinda bullshit even if foreshadowed and the beginning in my opinion just added nothing to the film besides being set in Cloverfield universe. Hell, we don't get her motivation for her leaving the place. What was the motivation? What makes me want to understand and root for Michelle besides the fact of seeing her kidnapped? If that the main motivation, why not just start when she is driving to her parents house or something. It is very good Portal movie until you get to the end where you realized it is set in the Half Life Universe. If you talk about editing and cinematography, it is pretty damn good.
The original script was called "Cellar". I liked the characters better in the 10 Cloverfield Lane re-write (Damien Chazelle did it!) but the ending was better in the original spec I thought.
Thank you for your efforts in your videos! I've discovered more about films through your explanations and learned ways to better articulate it to others. Now I can technically explain why a film bombed/flourished for me and critique it in an improved view of growth. Please continue making more videos.
I love your humor, and thank you so much for making this! I need to do movies as part of my new work, but I don't have a lot of experience with it yet, so I really appreciate your expertise. And especially the motivational kitty in the end.
The goofy Powerpoint transition cuts are mentioned for laughs, but are any of them usable these days? I remember that Star Wars throws in an iris here or there as an homage to older films.
Thanks! I can't think of any other ones recently, but as you say, it would probably have felt invisible. Great video, btw! Learned a lot of useful terminology, and the "subtle" jump cuts were great.
I am glad your Suicide Squad video went viral, so I discovered your channel. Good stuff! And the alternative CLICKBAIT titles make me laugh every time ;)
This is one of my favourite videos of yours. You're always delivering top notch, informative commentaries, but this video is one of my favourites because learning the jargon behind a career, especially one I need to know more about, is immensely interesting. It helps that your voice is mellow and easy to listen to and your explanations are simple to understand but thorough enough that I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything vital. I also want to thank you for providing visual examples instead of just talking -- that's one of the best ways for me (personally) to learn something. I hope this all made sense! If not, TL;DR thanks for your consistently excellent videos. I look forward to them, and I'm hoping you had fun doing this video because I'd like to see more of this specific type of thing.
The Lost World cut makes it look like the lady is screaming in terror at a giant, roaring Ian Malcolm. The fake tropical background just reinforces the cheap monster movie vibe. I half thought you'd done it as a joke but nope, it's real.
What's interesting is that there's a deleted scene that originally filled in between that cut. It's a scene where the kids from the first movie visit Hammond at his mansion, and it's mostly Hammond talking with his lawyer (a lot of the information in the scene is duplicated later). In that original cut, the scream transitions into an establishing shot of the mansion, and then the end of the scene transitions from Hammond saying something like "you know who we need" to Malcom yawning in the subway.
Folding Ideas That would have been less confusing. It's been many years since I saw it (and would not watch it again because it's not good) so I had a "whuh?" moment watching this, it's really jarring and gives a weird impression.
god the 2001 joke. I'm not that knowledgable in movie techniques so that scene blew my mind when i saw it for the first time a few years back. it was just too perfect and I thought you were gonna talk about that, when, seemingly out of nowhere you bring out the jurrasic park 3 as an example of all things. brilliant.
10 Cloverfield is friggin great. My wife turned it on and I came in a minute or two in...I was LITERALLY drawn in by the editing, ambiance and the feel of the movie. Fan-friggin-tastic.
I am learning a lot from your videos! Your breakdowns of why Suicide Squad and The Last Airbender are just...bad, were especially informative. TLA seems to be so awful that I was cringing on just the bits you showed without having any other context, while SS's mistakes may never have been something I could articulate other than "that was a mess, I think? Ugh." Off to watch more!
Hey Dan. Could you explain how much of editing is planned ahead of shooting. I've heard of 'shooting for the edit', but that just adds the question how much of a film isn't shot with an exact end product in mind. For instance when they were filming the 3 different scenes for In Bruge, did they explicitly know they were going to cut it as a cross cut, or was that decided in the edit room? Just an idea.
The directors I know and I all think about the final film as we shoot the film, so it is almost always pre-planned, but it is possible for an edit to be decided after the fact I think. Are you interested in making movies or just in how theyre made?
Old comment but, there’s basically two schools of thought, shooting for the edit and shooting for coverage and finding the film in the edit. Not to imply they’re equally popular, far more people do the former, as that’s far easier to create stylish shots and is often 100% necessary for any VFX or SFX and so on. But proponents of the latter do exist. To answer your specific question, you’d usually know they would be intercut, but not necessarily to which degree. But some definitely have the exact film in their mind and try to get it out as accurately as they can.
Oh yeah, I love these concepts. I think I heard guy Ritchie Movies being described as "Shot for the edit", and watching them you can see that they contain a lot of very specific shots you have to do on purpose. I guess on the other end of that spectrum would be something like Borat, where they endlessly shot stuff and then later figured out how it goes together.
Speaking as someone who does all the editing for someone else's video, I would say jump cuts are kind of a necessary evil of youtube since filming 2 entire videos of spontaneous unscripted text from different angles (or zoom depth like you did here, don't know the technical term and never studied film like most youtube editors, I imagine) takes a lot of effort. It's almost become a staple of youtube, for some reason I would find it jarring in a movie (I know of one noteable example from von Trier's Nymphomaniac) but I have no problem with it being used in youtube videos. I think it serves more for function of cutting out "white space" for brevity's sake or to simply do away with unnecessary rambling. The L and J cuts have given me some ideas though, so I appreciate you making this.
My favourite kind of transition is when in a moving shot some object in the scene, like a wall, blocks the the view but when it leaves, it has transitioned to a different shot.
Great video -- started make me think of great edits in movies I like and I never even thought about the editing or that the specific cuts had actual names. Graphic match cut used to great effect towards the end of Brian Depalma's Blowout.
I'm gonna go ahead an be the umpteenth million person to compliment how the you're basically giving a master class in editing technique, with the cuts you choose in this video, while talking about the basics...just...cuz...
When that puppet came out and talked about the match cut in 2001 I legit got a cold sweat over how cinematically basic / shitty a conversationalist I've been at parties. Oof.
I also like the 'cross cut fakeout', when you THINK that, because the cuts appear to show different things happening simultaneously, only to have a final cut that reveals one part of the scene happened a long time ago, and it was NOT happening simultaneously.
Jez Anderson you can still like to and he still sees it, he just hides the bars from the public because they affect people's opinions of the video before they watch and can often be a referendum on whether the audience agrees or not rather than on how good the video is for controversial topics.
A "very strange edit" of Spielberg? He does that graphic match cut all the time. It was very noticeable in Jaws when he zoomed in on a brown eye and then in the next scene that eye was a cup of coffee belonging to the sheriff that he zoomed out of. Another set of noticeable examples is how in the beginning of every Indiana Jones movie he transitions the Paramount mountain title card into a mountain that sets the first scene (or in The Crystal Skull, for some reason, a molehill).
